CGT cooling woes headgasket, methinks?

[qshipaz at juno.com]

Hello again,

The other member of the downtown Phoenix Ancient Audi Association has proba=
bly been chatting with my 5ktq and decided it too will be a Hangar Queen. E=
xcept there's no space in the hangar, and roommate Tom doesn't have anythin=
g else to drive!

I've posted on this before. The '86 GT has had weird cooling problems since=
 he picked it up. But for the last 2 months, it's been OK. Not losing coola=
nt, not running hot, etc. It is the cooler season but in AZ that's still ar=
ound 80F. I figured the new cap, bottle, thermostat, rodded radiator, and n=
ew fan switch probably took care of things.

Wrong (I think). The other night it began to lay a large cloud of white smo=
ke and run roughly. Coolant had gone inexplicably missing in the last day o=
r so, so I think you know where this is heading. That's not where it gets r=
eally weird, though. It cleared out in a block's worth of driving and began=
 to run normally again (good power, no smoke), but puffed up once back in t=
he neighborhood.

Funny part: after shutoff, the exhaust kept smoking. For about five minutes=
. I'm talking the kind of cloud you get on a cold day. Smelled somewhat lik=
e burning paper.

I've done headgaskets on various motors, diagnosed them on others and was p=
roved right, etc. But I've never seen anything like this.

As it was 11/1/02, do you suppose that someone jammed something flammable u=
p the tailpipe?? Or was this the symptoms of sugar in the tank?

I'm beginning to wonder. The car *was* outside on Devil's Night...

Rob




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